What ND does should I get?

[akane]

I've decided to rehome or repurpose(meaning turn to dog food) the mini rex x american sable doe I have and I'm not sure about the tort argent x american sable doe. I like my silvered tort line I developed and would hate to see it die but I'm not sure I have the room to breed meat rabbits in the condo since no one will buy large breed crosses. It's also fairly easy to reproduce the crossings I used to make my silvered torts when I have a house with land again. I'm thinking of breeding some pure ND for once instead of ND x mini rex pets. I have a nice show quality sable buck I've been sitting on for the past 2 years using for random breedings. Then I have his sable point grandson who is a tad big because his great grandmother was Shimo, the unpedigreed frosty I bought from a petstore. I want to mainly breed nonextension and shadeds. I'm also leaning towards some chin to make frosty. Maybe some broken.

So thinking out loud as far as I can tell Kido is aaBBDDchlchE* and Enki is aaBBDDchlchee. There's a shaded and broken ND breeder about 40miles north of here and there's the only big show near me coming up this spring. Is it worth tracking down a tort or should I just breed for one? I've never seen tort ND. I'm thinking of a broken chocolate cause I love the color and it might carry shaded if I get it from the nearby breeder.

I could keep a broken from chocolate x enki and breed back to enki for a tort but then I'd be a little stuck because I'm not sure Kido carries nonextension so the only way to get more torts and sable points from that crossing is to breed back to enki again. He'd be on the pedigree 3 times. I suppose I could do broken chocolate x enki, keep broken doe, broken doe x Kido, test breed offspring to enki for a doe that kept the nonextension gene.

Same with the chin if I can find one. Enki x chin doe, offspring doe x Kido, test breed resulting chins to Enki until I get frosty.

The sire side of the pedigrees would look something like Kido-half sibling buck-enki-kido-enki. Maybe I will just have to house a 3rd buck :/ but then what color buck would I want? A sable point carrying chocolate? Chocolate chin or chin carrying chocolate? Maybe a broken chocolate doe and chin chocolate carrier buck and just keep some does from breedings to use instead of buying 2-3 does...

 

[MamaSheepdog]

It goes without saying that I can't help you with the genetic side of things... but I just wanted to say that I am glad you will still be able to "keep a toe in" breeding rabbits even though you had to disperse most of your herd. Yay!

 

[akane]

I'm tearing down a large 4' long cage originally made for the guinea pig meat experiment, then used for rabbits, and then we tried to use it for hedgehogs but the design did not meet their needs. So it's going and a smaller cage for the hedgehog that would have been in there is being put on the other side of the room. That means I can put in 2, 40" long stacks of rabbit cages. I think I can keep 4 medium or 6 dwarf breeders plus 1-2 litters at a time that way. I just have to figure out how to maximize what I breed.<br /><br />__________ Sun Jan 12, 2014 10:33 pm __________<br /><br />Got an email back from the only breeder of ND near me and they only have broken sable out of sable x broken smoke pearl for awhile. One is a proven adult doe so maybe they would breed her to a buck for me and I could keep a buck offspring from her to breed blues. Then I can spend the year finding the chocolate I want. Chin may be spreading myself too thin with my limited space.

 

[skysthelimit]

My one and only ND was chin. Pretty much what fulled my Rex obsession with the chin color.

 

[akane]

I really like chin colored rabbits but sable, chin, chocolates, brokens, nonextension, possible resulting agoutis and torts... I only have room for about 6 breeders so unless I can find or make a combination of several genes without too much inbreeding it's too many colors to work with.

I can't get a clear answer what they have for rabbits besides saying shaded varieties so we are just gonna go have a look if he ever gets back to me when.

 

[Peach]

Depending on if your interest is to show, go with the best typed (but works and don't screw up your colors)! Also, don't branch too far with lines or you will have too much genetic material and won't be able to get consistency with your NDs. Seems to be the main problem when people get into them. Good to start with a pair or trio from one breeder that is producing and has a nice show record behind them.

On a side note, shaded are effected by temperature. So shaded basically only looks good in the winter and spring. It's one of those things you have to decide is a good or bad battle. Usually shows are at a good time of the year that my shaded colored Mini Lops can have a decent coat. My best shaded colors are born in the winter. Beautiful, but a pain in the butt to get in coat lol

 

[akane]

We are keeping them indoors. We probably won't do much if any showing. I have a sleeping disorder and few shows are near us so we just can't get there by the time they start. Right now I'm sleeping 2-4hours every 24hours around 6-10 am with about 4 prescription medications at max dosage and 2 otc meds at max dosage. That's as good as it gets currently. Usually we only do 2-3 shows a year. The city near us, the fair in my hometown, and sometimes a show 2hours away that is really big. We might sell to people that show. I especially get a lot of 4-h requests for good tempered show quality ND.

My 2 current bucks are closely related. I'd have to research the younger ones pedigree a bit in my records because they were colony breeding and I didn't enter him by name when he was born. He's the only sable point we produced so I should be able to sort it out. Kido may be both Enki's father and grandfather so we need 1 or 2 unrelated lines. Kido had a very good showing career until one toenail faded. Enki has never been put on the table. He might be slightly too big. I'd have to also get a weight on him.